


Worth it

by rhettmclovely



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, Hand Jobs, M/M, Referenced violence, angst i guess lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 16:28:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12634815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhettmclovely/pseuds/rhettmclovely
Summary: He’s drunk. Rhett’s drunk. They’re both drunk. They’re both so drunk.





	Worth it

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what this trainwreck is and I'm sorry

“Oh my goodness! Are you sure we can’t do anything about this?” Rhett’s mother asked her husband when she saw the basement they had stuffed her precious boy in. “Is this even legal? Can they just throw a bunk bed in a basement and call it a dorm room?”

“It’s okay, mom. Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.” Rhett said.

“It’s about time he stops being babied.” Mr. McLaughlin added, smiling, even though Rhett knew it wasn’t a joke.

Rhett couldn’t wait for them to go. If he had had it his way, they wouldn’t even have come in the first place. But his father refused to let him bring the car until he proved he could “be responsible and act like a man” and his mother thought it wasn’t right to stay behind and not say goodbye at the last possible second.

He knew he was lucky to have them. Her, especially. He saw how Link envied their normalcy and although Rhett assured him it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, knowing how much Link wished his family could be a little bit more like his, made Rhett a little more thankful than he would have otherwise been.

Right now though, Link kept mouthing “yikes” from behind Rhett’s parents, looking perfectly content with having packed his stuff alone and being seen off the night before (to many of a tear from his mom, to be fair) as Sue rushed out the house for her late night shift.

Rhett loses track of how long they’ve been in the small, stuffy basement. His mother has fixed everything that could possibly be fixed and she’s done it twice over. When his father started hinting that they should probably get going, she had taken it upon herself to make sure Link was taken care of, as well. In spite of all his polite “no”s, Mama Di had changed his (clean) sheets, neatly folded his clothes and had even gotten her reluctant husband to go fix the broken shelf that was supposed to serve as a bedside table to the top bunk.

When she couldn’t convince her husband to stay any longer, him having shook his son’s hand, reminding him he was here to study, not to party and having told her he’d be waiting in the car, she finally said her goodbyes. She had started crying, before she had even hugged Rhett and she cried the entire time as he walked her back to the car. Rhett kept telling her to stop. He wasn’t going to war. He’d be home soon. He wasn’t even that far from home to begin with.

When they finally drove off, Rhett let out a sigh of relief, even if he felt a little guilty. But he knew she’d be fine. She always was.

“Hey.” He said, as he walked back into the room.

“Hey. That was intense, man.” Link said, with a smile.

“Yeah. You know how she is.”

Link nodded.

“This guy came by to invite us to this party tonight. Second floor.” Link said.

“Oh. Did he seem alright?”

“I guess. A little weird. His name is Pete.”

“Weird Pete.”

“We’re the basement guys, so we’re probably weirder than him.”

“We need to get that nickname to stick before someone starts calling us the ‘weird basement guys’” Rhett says, laughing. “Wanna go?”

“Dunno. It’d be a good way to meet a few people.”

“Maybe there’ll be some girls there too. We can start the semester right, huh?”

“God, you’re pathetic.” Link says, chuckling.

Rhett throws a pillow at him.

“C’mon, man. High school is over. You’re single now, remember?”

“I haven’t forgotten, Rhett.”

“She didn’t deserve you anyway. So, maybe we’re not going for the girls, but we should still go, right?”

“Yeah.”

 

*****

 

They day goes by pretty smoothly. They don’t have classes yet, so they spend it in the dorm, making it their own space, undoing most of what Mama Di had spent so long setting up for them. Rhett tapes a bunch of posters to the walls, finally free to do it, now that he isn’t sharing a roof with his parents and their obsession with perfectly white walls. Link feels the urge to fix them all, align them and tape them perfectly parallel to the floor and the ceiling, but he knows how much of a moment this is for his best friend, so he lets it slide. They eat some cereal for dinner, too lazy to go upstairs to the dining hall and soon after they start getting ready for the party. The bathroom is small and old, but it’s pretty much only for the two of them, which no one else in any of the other floors can say. That helps the process, even if Mr. “I Got a Buzzcut So I Can Get Up and Just Leave the House” still spends an hour getting ready.

When they get to the party, it’s still pretty early. Link spots Weird Pete and introduces him to Rhett. Slowly but surely, people start showing up and Rhett takes it upon himself to make sure they get to know everyone.

“Hey, We’re Rhett and Link, we’re down in the basement. Weird Pete invited us” becomes his opener. It introduces them to their new potential friends, it tells them where they can find them and it tells them who’s the weirdo in the dorm, deflecting the title from the two tall skinny dudes who share a room in the basement.

There aren’t many girls there, even less alone. Most of them came with their boyfriends, but

Rhett spots this short girl, arguing with some guy and he can’t stop looking at her.

“I’m gonna go for it.”

Link laughs, shaking his head.

“She’s gonna eat you alive.”

“Bet you I’m gonna be the one eating her tonight.”

“Yeah, use that as your opener. I’m sure it’ll go great.” Link replies, patting Rhett on the back.

Link can’t quite figure out how long ago Rhett told him not to wait up for him, with a dramatic wink, or when he started playing beer pong, or when he got this drunk. He can’t quite remember when the idea of Rhett trying to pick up that girl went from being amusing to being mildly annoying to pissing him off, either. So he decides it’s time to go back to the basement.

He stumbles down the stairs and gets back into their room. It feels stuffier than it did before. He searches in his bedside table’s drawer for the cigarettes he stole from his mom, before he left. He doesn’t usually smoke. She doesn’t either. She only ever smokes when she goes on a date and it goes really bad. He’s less specific. He’ll do it when life in general goes really bad. He doesn’t know why he’s suddenly so angry. He tries to come up with reasons. Maybe it’s because it’s their first day. Rhett knows he doesn’t know anyone else here. Well, he knows Weird Pete. Kind of. Barely. Your best friend isn’t supposed to leave you behind over some girl he doesn’t even know.

God, this room is small. He can’t smoke here. He should go back upstairs, find a room with a fucking window, because he can’t even have that. A fucking window! But he doesn’t want to go back there. Maybe he can just smoke half of bit y the stairs. No one is around at this hour and even if they were, they wouldn’t be coming down here. Why is he so angry? He’s drunk. It’s just that Rhett… He’s drunk. Couldn’t Rhett just wait one day before he became obsessed with some girl he knows nothing about? One day! He’s drunk. Rhett’s probably with her right now. He’s drunk. Kissing her. He’s drunk. She’s touching him. He’s drunk. Like Link wants to touch him. He’s drunk. Like he has wanted to touch him for so long. He’s drunk. Like he wishes he’d want to touch him too. He’s drunk. He’s drunk. He’s so drunk.

“Cigarettes are bad for you.” Link hears, before he drops the cigarette, startled.

“Jesus Christ, Rhett!”

“Are you okay, brother?” They call each other that every single day and yet the word stings a little, right now.

“Yeah… I don’t know…” He replies, before asking “How did it go?”

“Yeah, it didn’t.” He answers, sitting next to him, on the steps. “I’ve been up there with Weird Pete for like an hour. It stuck, by the way. Everyone’s calling him Weird Pete and he isn’t even mad at us. I can’t believe it actually worked but it really… ”

Gosh. He’s so oblivious sometimes. He’s rambling and he’s drunk too. He can walk on a straighter line drunk than Link ever could sober, but he’s drunk. It’s the pink cheeks that really give it away. Link’s blood is boiling in his veins and he can’t decide if it’s how angry he is at him or if it’s how bad he wants to risk it all. Maybe Rhett wouldn’t remember it tomorrow, maybe he wouldn’t either. Maybe it would be for the better.

He’s so fucking beautiful. Shit. He’ll move rooms if he has to. He’ll change schools. He’ll move out of the state. Fuck.

Rhett is still rambling.

“I want you.” That ought to shut him up.

“What?” he asks. Like he genuinely didn’t catch what Link said.

So Link swallows hard and says it again.

“I want you.”

Rhett looks like a deer in the headlights.

He’s drunk. Rhett’s drunk. They’re drunk. Shit. They’re both so drunk.

He doesn’t know who made the first move. He doesn’t remember moving closer and he doesn’t remember getting up either. He doesn’t remember, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter, because Rhett’s hands are on him, on his face, on his neck, moving up under the hem of his shirt.

Link pushes him into the room, breaking the kiss, only long enough to lock the door, before kissing him again.

It’s like he’s gone deaf. He knows Rhett is speaking, as he moves down to kiss his neck, but he doesn’t hear anything but the beating of his own heart, as he touches Rhett’s chest, as he runs his hands up and down his sides, as he licks and sucks into his neck.

He’s only brought back to reality as he realizes where his hands are headed. He only starts to hear his name mixed in with all types of profanity, when his hands are over Rhett’s belt.

He can feel how hard he is. He wants nothing more than to touch him, but he hesitates.

He’s drunk. Rhett’s drunk. They’re both drunk.

Rhett nods and kisses his neck, as Link starts to undo his belt and his jeans.

They’re both so drunk.

Rhett’s body is pressed against the door, with Link so close to him that he can barely fit his hand between them. He’s so big. Shit.

Rhett’s hand ghosts over Link’s belt and all Link can do is whisper a “please” he’s not even sure Rhett heard. But he starts unbuckling his belt just the same, just as Link starts to stroke him slowly.

“I want you to fuck me.” He manages to say. He’s not sure it comes out any louder than the “please” before, but the way Rhett grunts assures him it was loud enough. “But I don’t think I can last that long”.

“’Nother time.” Rhett replies, voice lower and raspier than usual, and Link almost comes then and there. “Shit. I… fuck, Link.”

“Yeah.” Link says, because he knows. Shit, he knows.

“Fuck. I thought we’d never… shit, I’ve wanted this… you…for so long. God, I tried to hide it. But… shit… I can’t. For so long… Fuck, high school was hell. Every time you were near me…When you slept over…I’d just look at you…Shit, man… I’d just think about how it would be to… God… to…to kiss you…to touch you…and then… that day… ‘member? I was playing ball… training… my father made me… and you were there… watching… and… shit… we started playing… and I kept teasing you… “You aren’t even trying! Try to get this ball from me” and you just…shit… you just walked up to me and kissed me…shit…and it wasn’t even nothing…it was just you being a smartass… and you just took the ball… fuck…my dad, he saw, you know…

“What?” Link asks, stopping on his tracks, his hands resting on Rhett’s thighs. He felt mortified. He knew somewhere along the way Mr. McLaughlin had started treating him differently but he couldn’t have imagined it was because of…

Rhett guided Link’s hand back to his hard dick, with one hand, while he stroke him with the other

“Please.”

Link nodded, before kissing him and starting from where he left off.

“It wasn’t pretty. Shit… Had the belt waiting for me, when I came back inside… The point is… it didn’t even…I mean, it hurt, but I didn’t give a shit…the point is…shit… it was worth it. You’re worth it. I love you.

That’s all it takes for Link to come, Rhett following soon after.

He’s drunk. Rhett’s drunk.

“I love you too.”

They’re both so drunk.

But that doesn’t make it any less true.


End file.
